The Philadelphia 76ers will have a new starting lineup with James Harden set to make his team debut on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The expectation is Harden and Joel Embiid will vault the Sixers deep into the playoffs.
However, there are questions that need to be answered. One is who will replace the shooting of Seth Curry? The Sixers moved him to the Brooklyn Nets in the deal to obtain Harden, ramping up the pressure on guys such as Matisse Thybulle to shoot more and more efficiently.
Thybulle has not made a 3-pointer since Feb. 8 when he went 2-for-2, and he was 0-for-10 heading into the All-Star break. In their previous contest with the Milwaukee Bucks, Thybulle was defended by Giannis Antetokounmpo who roamed all over the floor, leaving Thybulle open at the 3-point line.
Coach Doc Rivers turned to Furkan Korkmaz to start the second half, and Korkmaz’s shooting was a big help. Thybulle played 2:51 after halftime.
The Sixers are not worried about Thybulle’s recent shooting struggles.
“There’s other things he can do,” said Rivers. “We talked about it. Teams are starting to do the old help off him. Today (Thursday) was the most egregious that I’ve seen. Put Giannis on him and just have him rover the floor. Giannis, he’s big, that is problematic, but there’s not a lot of Giannis’ in the league that can do that so that won’t be an issue for us.”
Maybe so, but Harden is used to having a lot of shooters around him as is Embiid. It is good Thybulle is firing away from deep, but he has to start knocking them down.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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